Excited to travel the world? You’ve got your travel backpack, boots, shades, a stack of suitcases, and a golden ticket to whatever destination excites your imagination! Seems like you’re all set to go. But wait. Is there something holding you back from stepping out the front door and into the excitement of the unknown? Something that’s stopping you from finally leading the life of adventure you imagined in your school days? If so, you may find the solution to your hold-up through hypnosis for travel.
Yes, hypnosis. That practice most commonly caricatured by a watch dangling back and forth in front of someone’s eyes — ”You are getting very sleepy!” — as they slip into a cartoonish trance. While that image of hypnosis may be popular in the movies, it’s not how hypnosis is used in the real world.
The real thing is simple. Hypnosis, whether guided or self-directed, guides your mind and body into a state of utter relaxation — much like meditation. Once there, hypnosis hones its sights on improving your well-being by focusing your attention on who you are within as well as on the world you live in Sunday through Saturday.
If anything is holding you back from Paris, Hong Kong, the Amazon or wherever you’d most like to go, don’t worry. You can travel the world. Below you’ll find five actionable ways hypnosis for travel just might help you get there.
5.) Fear of Flying
We all have fears. Some of us are afraid of spiders, some are afraid of snakes and others fear situations they can’t escape from.
Perhaps the biggest impediment to traveling is the fear of flying. You’re cramming yourself into a hulk of steel flying 35,000 feet over the surface of the earth. Unlike driving, you’re not in control of the vehicle. Plus, nightly news and made-for-TV documentaries regularly sensationalize air flight disasters.
Sure, it’s scary. So scary for some that there’s even a specific name for the extreme fear of flying: pteromerhanophobia. But is it warranted? No. Both statistics and common sense tell us that our distress about flying is largely irrational.
We know that if we let fear dictate our lives we’ll never see the world, but that’s easier to recognize than overcome. As Dale Carnegie said, “If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” Which is where hypnosis steps in.
What does hypnosis do? Well guided hypnosis for travel makes three simple points to help you overcome the fear of flying (or any fear for that matter):
- Recognize your fears for what they are.
- Understand that everyone feels fear.
- Counter those fears with self-compassion.
Writing for MindBodyGreen, Liz Moody discussed using hypnosis to overcome her fear of flying. She writes, “it was most akin to a therapy session done in a supremely relaxed state, although Grace points out that hypnosis concentrates on cementing new visions of the future, while therapy tends to focus on the past.”
There’s nothing wrong with feeling scared. Just don’t let your fears stop you from traveling — or doing anything you want to do. With some hypnosis for travel, you can conquer your feels so you can get on an airplane and explore the world.
4.) Procrastination
There’s a calendar on your wall. Each month shows a new picture of a new destination while the days are crossed off below. Last month was Bali; this month it’s the island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, it’s snowing outside and the walls buzz as a 747 passenger jet flies overhead to whatever destination grips your imagination.
“Someday,” you say to yourself. Meanwhile, the days, months, and years pass by as you keep putting off sipping margaritas by a crystal blue beach.
You’re procrastinating.
English poet Edward Young wrote, “Procrastination is the thief of time” Is any maxim more applicable today in which we are constantly barraged by distractions? In fact, one in five adults chronically procrastinates while the rest of us selectively procrastinate whether it’s doing the dishes, getting our work done, or even traveling the world.
We procrastinate when there’s a disconnect between the self as we are now and our future self. We tend to think of that person next year as a different person: someone who isn’t us. So, we prioritize who we are in this moment, rather than giving a bone to who we will be in the future. And this, like everything, is turned into a habit.
In an interviewer, researcher Eve-Marie Blouin-Hudon revealed that guided meditation tapes helped people connect to their future selves. You are that person who could be yodeling from the top of the Alps. All you have to do is stop procrastinating.
Guided hypnosis for travel puts you in touch with what you really want from life. It dampens the endless noise that pulls at our attention and puts us in touch with our true self. If every fiber of your being is shouting out to see Petra, then hypnosis for travel will show you. You’ll finally be able to order your priorities to achieve the life you want to live: one that plants its feet on as many continents as it likes.
3.) Anxiety
Anxiety throws us into a whirlpool of our own making, making us spin around negative thoughts that want to chow us down faster than we can swim against the current. Nothing throws off an Antarctica cruise like the anxious panic that straitjackets you to your cabin when you should be searching the horizon for orca whales. Your travel insurance gives you some peace of mind, but you’re still paralyzed.
Why does this happen — and at the worst times?
Well, think about this. We all have an inner narrator, who we call “me,” or “I.” That narrator is constantly telling a story about who we are, where we are and what we’re doing. We hypnotize ourselves into certain beliefs and attitudes about the “I” and the world around the “I.”
Hypnosis is a means of breaking free from the spell we put ourselves under when we’re anxious: all those negative nagging thoughts that try to keep us in bed well past noon — or incapable of falling asleep until the sun glides over the eastern horizon. If your anxiety keeps you from going on adventures and enjoying long-haul flights or exciting hostels, consider hypnosis for travel to help put that anxiety to rest.
2.) Sleep
When traveling, it can be tough to sleep. You’re in a new place and don’t have your pillow. Maybe the walls are thin and you can hear fellow travel neighbors next door. But you need to sleep. Otherwise, how are you going to fully appreciate the Cliffs of Mohr in all their magisterial glory?
Hypnosis for travel can help you fall asleep fast. The core of any well-guided hypnosis is helping you find a state of deep relaxation. It massages your mind into letting go, to let those idle thoughts evaporate to the setting sun. Not only is the goal to help you mentally relax but physically as well. After all, physical tension (such as a clenched jaw) can be just as detrimental to falling asleep.
Here are some additional tips for falling asleep:
- Practice deep breathing.
- Close the curtains, and block out any sunlight.
- Tense and relax your muscles.
- Lower your room’s temperature (if you can).
- Don’t eat before sleep.
1.) Law of Attraction
Our last point about hypnosis is that it doesn’t just apply to travel, but it works for any meaningful change you want to make in your life. It answers the question, “How do I make ideas a reality?” Or to put it another way, “How am I going to hike Zhangjiajie National Forest Park?”
We’re calling this the law of attraction, or how to make the possibilities you set out for your life a reality. Now that can sound like hocus-pocus or feel-good judo. But hold your cynicism until you know how it works.
An idea inspires you like no other. It smiles at you throughout the day and beckons you to pursue it to the end. Naturally, you develop a powerful passion. This passion incites actionable steps that you can take, which ultimately bring that idea to fruition like an apple seed eventually bears red delicious.
Here are the steps you should take to get to your goal.
- Become accountable.
- Lay out a plan of action.
- Start implementing those actions every day.
- Learn from others who have done something similar.
- Recognize the beliefs/attitudes that may hold you back.
The law of attraction really is a model for pursuing dreams. It takes what seems to be a phooey term and turns into actionable steps. Hypnosis will help you cultivate the attitude needed to pursue the law of attraction model. At the end of the day, that’s what it takes: a commitment to a methodology that gets you from Point A to Point B, from daydreaming in the office to traveling the world.
Benefits of Hypnosis for Travel
“The shortest path to oneself leads around the world,” is a maxim that even has science supporting its wisdom. How so? By traveling abroad, you engage in self-reflection that brings you in touch with your innermost thoughts and the beliefs and attitudes that shape who you are. You watch yourself actively grow as you bounce off your explorations. It’s what researchers call self-concept clarity.
To get there, you have to get on the road, or plane, or bus or train.
If you’re struggling to make the initial step, whether it be anxiety about flying or fears that you won’t get to sleep soundly, then consider hypnosis for travel as a positive solution. Hypnosis may be what you need to take the first step on an adventure around the world.